Men in Black Review

 

        During the mid to late 90s, superhero films were already failing. Films like The Phantom, The Shadow, Barb Wire, and Tank Girl were not doing good box office wise and the subsequent Batman films with director Joel Schumacher were immediately lowering in quality. At the same time, the comic book industry was almost in financial ruin. They were a part of the comic book speculator bubble. Meaning that people would buy a first issue of a comic book, with hopes that it would be valuable in one day. Many shops would have tons of stock for books that were sitting there which caused the shops to bleed money, forcing them to shut down. Men in Black is significant since it was the first comic book movie to gross nearly a billion dollars.

1. Agents K and J

        The series was created by Lowell Cunningham and Sandy Carruthers. I haven’t had a chance to read the series, but the film takes some liberties. We follow Agent Kay and his partner as they approach a man smuggling Mexicans. The two agents assure the Mexicans to go back in the van, except for one. K speaks Spanish but reveals that one isn’t who he is. The seasoned Agent reveals that the alien is using a head as a disguise. 

        Meanwhile, a spaceship crash lands on a farm. The farmer Edgar checks it out and sees that the creature is an alien. A Bug that looks like a cockroach kills Edgar and wears his skin as a disguise. I find it so odd to see Vincent D’Onofrio have extra skin to make it seem that the skin is too lose for the Bug. I really like the detail that the skin decays as the film goes forward. 

        Anyways, we then follow a police officer James Edwards pursuing a criminal. He chases the perp to an art museum but sees that the crook displays an amazing ability to crawl on top of the museum. James catches up to him and tells the officer that his world would end. When being interrogating of what happened, the officer meets Agent K. From there, we see the world that is the Men in Black. 

        James is part of the recruitment that involves highly decorated military soldiers. One of my favorite moments is when the others are attempting to finish the written test, they fidget and adjust themselves to finish the test. James decides to drag the coffee table in the middle of the room to his chair and continue his test. This whole scene really develops James to be an unorthodox person the secretive agency looks for. For example, when the recruits are put in a shooting range, and the troopers are shooting at the aliens. The officer shoots a cardboard cutout of a small girl. 

        This is the best scene to James; he explains that the aliens are merely just doing their thing and not causing problems. While the girl has in her hand a very scientific book that is way too advanced to have, especially in a shady side of town. It shows us that James isn’t a shoot now talk later person. He sees what each person is and picks out the one that is the just odd. That is enough for Agent K to pick him and to be a part of the Men in Black. 

        The whole movie is like a sci-fi approach to the Lethal Weapon films or the buddy cop films. With a seasoned vet who is partnered with a new blood. Albeit Agent K picks his partner Agent J. We then see just what exactly the agency does. 

2. One Weird Agency

        So the agency acts like a mix of Border Patrol and Homeland Security. They keep track of the aliens who are living among the humans in disguise. While they welcome aliens to become processed and be a citizen in any city. They even have aliens work for them to keep tabs on the different aliens who are significant. There’s like two aliens who look at a giant screen and it has actors and politicians who are aliens. 

        The world building is something to behold in the film. It could’ve been easy to mess up the agency to look too alien. Here, it’s a balance where it’s like an office building but it’s so odd to see the aliens and look at the weapons that Agent K shows to J. The one weapon that is always associated with the characters is the pen like neuralyzer. It acts like an eraser to one’s memory to forget about seeing an alien. The funny bit is that Agent K would come up with a lame background of what happened, which J mocks him for it and he comes up with a more lively background. 

        If there is one thing that is questionable about them is just using that Neuralyzer. When the duo meet a mortician Laurel, she talks to Agent J and says that she may have seen him. It can only be interpreted that she may have ward off the effects of the weapon. More so that Agent K is coy to J when he asks if that pen like weapon can actually hurt a person if being too utilized. It's played for laughs but it could've been one thing where the sequels touched on. Which they didn't. 

3. Marvel Connection

        When you look up this film on Wikipedia, you’ll notice that it’s associated with Marvel Comics. While Marvel didn’t publish the series during the initial release, let me explain. The series was published by Aircel Comics, which was then bought by Malibu Comics. There’s always a bigger fish, since Marvel bought out Malibu Comics. With all that being established, you could technically say that Men in Black is the first successful Marvel film. One could only imagine just how that one publisher’s characters would change the entire genre and Hollywood. 

4. Legacy

        As I mentioned earlier, the film was successful when it grossed half a billion dollars. People loved the comedy and the camaraderie of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. The later was everywhere in film during the 90s, this only brightened the star’s popularity. The movie even got an animated series to milk off the film’s success. As with most things, it got a sequel. I haven’t seen it, only with snippets here and there. It’s considered a disappointment since it ruined the first movie’s ending. 

        A third was released back in 2012, it was an improvement, but I haven’t had the chance to watch it. The series was brought back with new actors such as Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. This movie has so much behind the scenes drama, no joke, both actors hired their own writers to change the script that was already written for them. One day I’ll watch it. 

5. Overall 

        Men in Black is one of the few great comic book films of the 90s. What works is the duo and the agency being completely weird. Director Barry Sonnenfeld nailed the comic book series after his hits like The Addams Family duology and Get Shorty. The film still holds up and is a relic of the 90s.

        Men in Black gets a four out of five.